Track Listing

1. Working Class Hero (Acoustic)n
2. Love (Acoustic)
3. Well Well Well (Acoustic)
4. Look at Me (Acoustic)
5. God (Acoustic)
6. My Mummy's Dead (Acoustic)
7. Cold Turkey (Acoustic)
8. I'm a Man (Acoustic)
9. Luck of the Irish (Live) (Acoustic)
10. John Sinclair (Live) (Acoustic)
11. Woman is the Nigger of the World (Acoustic)
12. What You Got (Acoustic)
13. Watching the Wheels (Acoustic)
14. Dear Yoko (Acoustic)
15. Real Love (Acoustic)
16. Imagine (Live) (Acoustic)
17. It's Real (Acoustic)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28797 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com

John Lennon Photos

More from John Lennon

Imagine	John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band	The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Mind Games	Working Class Hero	Walls and Bridges

Amazon.com
John Lennon was celebrated for the ornate and avant-garde adornments he brought to the Beatles, but he also at times responded to a powerful impulse to strip his music to its raw essence. Indeed, Lennon would have flourished in the unplugged era, when the nakedness of his best lyrics and the cutting directness of his astonishing voice would have been in the fore. Since John never got around to doing an acoustic collection, the task has fallen to Yoko Ono, who's pulled together 16 skeletal Lennon tracks, including seven previously unreleased selections. Of particular note are riveting newly surfaced Plastic Ono Band demos of "Well Well Well," "God," and "My Mummy's Dead," and a harsher-than-the-electric version of "Cold Turkey." Three early '70s live recordings and a smattering of later demos flesh out the collection. The booklet includes lyrics, tablature, and chord diagrams, though the liner notes are unfortunately skimpy. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Lennon stripped bare
Lennon was often at his best when his music was stripped down to the bare essentials. "Acoustic" certainly lives up to its stark title; we get 16 tracks that Lennon recorded either as demos or as guide tracks to help the backing musicians to learn a particular song. All of it is drawn from Lennon's solo years and the bulk of this has been released before on "The John Lennon Anthology". The seven tracks that haven't been released before include a stunning acoustic version of "Cold Turkey", an acoustic guitar version of The Beatles reunion track "Real Love" (which saw release on "Anthology" in its piano/vocal version sans overdubs), "Watching the Wheels" Lennon's explanation of his retirement from the circus of rock'n'roll. The most interesting tracks, though, stem from the time of "Plastic Ono Band" with Lennon creating acoustic demo versions of the key tracks from that classic album.

Yoko tries to cover Lennon's entire solo career with selections that appeared on every solo album (with the exception of "Mind Games" and the posthumous "Milk & Honey"). The most dated are the protest songs "John Sinclair" and "Woman is the Nigger of the World". "Luck of the Irish" and "John Sinclair" were recorded live for a political rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971 while the stunning version of "Imagine" comes from his appearence at the Apollo Theater in 1971. "God" is clearly a home demo (as is "Well Well Well") with probably the worst sound of any of the songs on the CD. Nevertheless, fans will want to have this even if the sound isn't always stellar. Yoko and engineer Rob Stevens have cleaned these up without polishing them with additional overdubs as much as possible. "What You Got" which originally appeared on "Walls & Bridges" is different from the version that appeared on "Anthology" and, with its unfinished temporary lyrics, sounds quite a bit different from the final polished product. It's informed much more by the blues than the version that was released before. "Dear Yoko" has some particularly nice playing by Lennon and his unaffected vocal creates an intimacy missing from the version on "Double Fantasy". One can imagine Lennon having just finished writing the song trying it on for size for the first time. "God" with its slightly different lyrics and "Look at Me" both certainly belong here as both sound terrific have just enough of a variation to make the performances interesting.


The booklet includes guitar tabs for all the songs, lyrics and some rare photos.For Beatles/Lennon fans that didn't want to spring for the "Anthology" boxed set, this disc and the "Wonsaponatime" single disc distillation will nicely fill out their Lennon discography. As for me, it's a treat to hear Lennon perform in such a relaxed environment.

Just John and his guitar...
I got this CD today because I'm a major, major John Lennon fan. Truth is, you don't really need to get this album if you have his box set, because a lot of the tracks on here are on that- but not all of them. And still I'm glad I bought it. The sound quality is excellent, and many times its like hearing him right there in the room with you. I don't even need to get into the songs because this is John Lennon and his music is absolutely beautiful. I mean, these are many of his demos I'm talking about! The man was just something else.

Anyway, I really adore the version of Dear Yoko on here. The song could be a little hokey on "Double Fantasy" but is sounds much more gentle and beautiful on here. The live version of Imagine is amazing. The version of God on here is not the same as the one on the Anthology box, and the intro is hillarious. Maybe I'm just biased but I love everything on here plain and simple. Its just so direct and so inspiring. In my opinion, John was really writing some of his best stuff towards the end of his life, and things like Watching the Wheels and Real Love are testaments to that. So sad...

The booklet has all the lyrics and guitar tabs for each song as well. Nice pictures. Wish there were more. Of course, with John, I always wish there was more, more, more...

Great stuff!
I've been a Lennon fan ever since I can remember...John was always my favorite Beatle and his solo work was phenomenal..After his death I began collecting his catalog and practically have everything he has released and was eagerly anticipating the release of this CD. I picked it up this today at Border's and have been listening to it all afternoon and love it! It's John stripped down to his guitar and listening to classic songs like Imagine, Love and God was very cool indeed! I especially like The Luck of the Irish..which sounds fresh and new! I think for anyone who admired John and his music this will be a treat! As for some of the previous negative reviews..all I can say is, for me..the music speaks for itself..I don't look at it as being cast off demos..etc..the music is great and sung with sincerity and as Yoko put it in the liner notes, from his heart...John was a genius who gave the world his talent and musicianship..God knows we can use a little bit of inspiration now...Give Peace a Chance!!